This panel delves into how the arts intersect with research and scholarship, illustrating how creative practices can elevate research outcomes and contribute meaningfully to society. By examining collaborations in fields such as medicine, psychology, and technology, we will explore how the arts offer new approaches to problem-solving, clarify complex ideas, and deepen engagement with research. Examples from animation, VR, music, dance, theater, and visual arts will demonstrate how these partnerships can reshape both academic inquiry and public understanding.

The panelists will showcase the powerful impact of blending artistic creativity with rigorous academic research.

Panelist:
Coya Paz Brownrigg
Associate Dean of Curriculum and Instruction
The Theatre School

Coya is a writer, director, scholar, and arts administrator with a deep commitment to racial and economic equity in the arts. She specializes in co-created performance and applied theater, and is the Strategic Director of the historic Free Street Theater in Chicago, whose mission is to create original performance that uplifts racial, economic, and environmental justice movements in Chicago. She is the co-author, with Chloe Johnston, of Ensemble-Made Performance: A Guide to Devised Theater. 

​​​​​Coya has been faculty at The Theatre School since 2008, and teaches classes in directing, history, and community-engaged performance for the Theatre Studies program. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, where her graduate research focused on intersections between public violence and performance, and she is particularly interested in ghost stories as cultural archives. Coya also researches economic disparity and the arts in Chicago, and is an advocate for neighborhood-based arts, particularly on the South and West sides of the city. She serves on a wide-variety of advisory and advocacy boards focused on racial and geographic equity, and does organizational consulting via Free Street Talks. Above all, Coya believes in the power of performance and poetry to build community towards social change. 

Panelist:
David Ramsay
Assistant Professor
Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media

Anuradha Rana is an independent filmmaker, program leader, and educator who has produced and directed award-winning films internationally. Born and raised in India, her immigrant roots create the lens of a curious interloper at the heart of her films, where everyday characters push conventional boundaries. Her work has been supported by Kartemquin Films, Tribeca Film Network, If/Then, PBS, DOC NYC, IL Arts Council, Chicago’s DCASE, CAAM, American Insitute for Indian Studies, Chicago International Film Festival, Full Spectrum Features, and Depaul Humanities Center. Anuradha is a Professor at DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts and on the steering committee for the Asian American Doc Network (A-DOC). She  has been named one of Chicago’s 50 Screen Gems, a DCASE esteemed artist,  DOC NYC’s Documentary New Leader, part of the ArtEquity BIPOC Leadership circle, and most recently, a Rockwood Documentary Leadership Fellow 2024.

Panelist:
Francesca Royster
Professor
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Francesca T. Royster is Professor of English at DePaul University, and received her PhD in English from University of California, Berkeley. At DePaul she teaches courses on African American Literature, Queer Writers of Color and Writing About Music.  She’s written scholarly work on Shakespeare, Black Lesbian Country music fans, Prince, and Fela Kuti on Broadway among other topics.  Her creative work has appeared in Feminist Studies,  Slag Glass City, LA Review of Books, The Huffington Post, The Windy City Times, Chicago Literati and The Oxford American. Her books include Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon  (Palgrave MacMillan, 2003), Sounding Like a No-No: Queer Sounds and Eccentric Acts in the Post-Soul Era  (University of Michigan Press, 2013), Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions (University of Texas Press, 2022), and Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance (Abrams/ Overlook Press, 2023).  Black Country Music recently won the 2023 Ralph Gleason Music Books First Prize from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Session Chair and Moderator:
Rob Steel
Professor, Post Production, Multimedia, Animation
Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media

Robert Steel is a composer for cinema, theater, and other media. Recent credits include the films Ganymede (feature, Audience Award at Reeling LGBT Festival), Get the F**k Outta Paris, Hominidae (VR, Sundance Film Festival and Cannes), Oh Baby!, and the augmented reality installation you have just been murdered (New York). He is currently co-writing a chapter for a book on the show Reservation Dogs. He is a Professor at DePaul University, serving on the University Board of Promotion and Tenure and the Faculty Council Executive Committee. He is currently the DePaul University Research and Innovation Leadership Fellow. He was a member and mentor with the Sundance Collective Kitchen for several years. Presentations on virtual exchange were delivered at the Audio Engineering Society (U.S and Germany), the University Film and Video Association (U.S.), and the International Virtual Exchange Conference (U.S. and Spain).